6-3 With Cousins
0-2 w/ Part Cousins
1-7 Without Cousins
See how that works now? He doesn't even have to play particularly well to score 30pts anymore. And at some point there it even looked like we might be trying to play some defense. Do not fear though, I'm sure the offenders will be identified and benched immediately.
Boxscore
Stats: 35min 20pts (7-12, 1-2, 5-5) 7reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Summary: back to being a second weapon, and after a quiet start slipped back into his comfort zone for an efficient scoring night
Gay ( B- ) -- This was a quiet comeback game for Gay. Gay was not involved in the offense at all to start the game, getting one touch in the first four minutes. He missed his first two attempts before starting to post up Wes Matthews, where his height and strength were too much for the guy to handle. Gay had it going a little in the second quarter as the Kings started the comeback, scoring on some easy jumpers and some tough turnaround shots as well as a few dunks in the lane. Really, though, he just quietly poured in points for the remainder of the game on good shooting and with very little in the way of forced shots. Defensively, he was a mess. He continually lost his man and messed up switches on defense throughout the first half. He was unable to contain anyone in the second quarter while the Mavericks pulled away. The rest of the team stepped up defensively in the second half, so his mistakes were less noticeable, but he was far from locked in on defense. Still, he was a net positive on the floor as he was not trying to do too much and carried part of the scoring load as the "big 3" combined for 70 points. --Hadlowe
Stats: 12min 1pt (0-0, 0-0, 1-2) 5reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Summary: got into early foul trouble and barely played therafter
Cauley-Stein ( INC ) -- He didn't see much time tonight, but what time he did see was pretty much a mixed bag. If we ignore his minute in garbage time where his defense was nonexistent, Trill still only had one good defensive stint tonight. In the first he wasn't making much of an impact down low, and he committed two fouls to put the Mavericks on the line for three points before getting pulled. In the third quarter he definitely had more of an impact on the defensive end, forcing a missed three and with a good rotation or two to stymie the Mavs. All in all the rebounding numbers were pretty good given his minutes, but he did miss two rebounds that he should have had and still looks to have some questionable hands from time to time. Offensively, Willie gave us nothing at all tonight. He was parking himself down on the baseline, not moving, not engaged in the offense, and basically letting his defender stand in the lane which took away all of our ability to drive or post up Cousins for that matter. The best you can hope for is for Willie to set a screen (I think he went to the effort to set three, all in the first quarter, and none freed anybody up meaningfully). We were playing 4-on-5 out there while trying to score for his 12 minutes, and bottom line he's going to have to find a way to integrate himself into the offense better. --Capt.
Stats: 38min 31pts (10-24, 1-8, 10-20) 9reb 6ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Summary: no center should ever shoot 1-8 from 3p land, and yet even with that its 31pts and another win for us
Cousins ( B ) -- okay, Cuz just put up a 31-9-6 line without me even feeling he was playing well until the 4th. May have been a little out of shape, not looking quite sprightly and settling for three after three, which is of course a great way to annoy me. Zaza was actually outplaying him early, including hitting a couple of midrange jumpers which Cuz did not contest. There was some frustration, including a dumb foul running in from out of bounds to delvier a big shoulder block on Zaza under the hoop. But after the other two bigs both got chased with foul trouble, Cuz began to get his inside game going a bit, was making passes out of the attention he was drawing, and you could just feel the stabilizing effect he had even without his "A" stuff -- in 38 minutes he was +24 in a game we won by 14, meaning we were losing a point a minute in the 10 minutes without him. A lot of it was defense too, few spectacular plays, but he just knows how to move out and shade guys off, deter drivers from even starting the drive. And when the 4th rolled around with the game still in doubt, he slowly rumbled to life on offense, chipping away at the FT line, dropping a hook over Dirk, drawing a big charge on defense, and relentlessly muscling the Mavs out of the game. Padded up the stats a bit in the final minutes when Carlisle had a Karl moment, and in desperation threw a 5 guard lineup out on the floor and asked Wes Matthews to guard Cuz. Luckily for Wes he merely got pummeled mercilessly for his trouble and didn't blow out his other achilles in the process. 28.2pts 11.0rebs now, and 30+ points in 5 of his last 7 games. --Brick
Stats: 18min 4pts (2-6, 0-2, 0-0) 2reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Summary: Ben had better watch these unproductive nights now, as Curry has emerged as another SG competitor, and he'll knock down open shots
McLemore ( D ) -- hit one open pullup in his first stint, and had a nice catch of a high Cousins pass. But he missed that shot, blew several more Rondo assists, and lost 2nd quarter minutes to Curry. After half he came back, hit one more shot, and felt a little more solid, but nothing was happening in the statsheet again. There was no problem with Whew! Thank God He Turned Us Down Nick Anders...I mean Wes Matthews. We weren't getting lit up at the spot. It was just even more of a productivity black pit for us than normal, with Ben and Bels combining for 4pts. --Brick
Stats: 30min 21pts (6-14, 2-6, 7-14) 3reb 5ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Summary: Carlisle tried to turn him into a scorer rather than passer, and played extensively on the hack-a-rondo exploit
Rondo ( ) -- --Brick
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